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XI. On the Management of Camellias when forced. In a Letter 

 to the Secretary. By Mr. Thomas Blake, F. H. S. Gardener 

 to the Lord Rolle, F. H. S. 



Read May 19, 1829. 



Sir, 



I take the liberty of communicating to the Horticultural Society 

 my treatment of that most beautiful tribe of plants the Camellia 

 Japonica. I natter myself the few practical hints I have put 

 together in this communication will not be unacceptable to many 

 of the Members of the Society ; they are the result of two years 

 application to the subject under consideration, and I should con- 

 sider myself a bigot in gardening were I not to communicate them 

 to a Society, whose prosperity I am sorry I cannot better promote. 



I need not point out to you that most shrubs and plants will force ; 

 but there is an exception in the Camellia. It struck me that I could 

 bring the varieties more regularly and quickly into flower by forcing 

 them into bud. I take the plants as soon as they are out of 

 flower, I shift them by taking some of the old mould off the ball, 

 and adding some rich compost, such as I use for Pines, I then place 

 them in a plant stove; the sudden transition from cold to heat 

 causes them to throw out young wood directly, and as soon as I can 

 perceive flower buds I remove them back to the greenhouse till 

 July ; I then put them out as much in the shade as possible. By 

 this simple process I am enabled to keep a succession of flowers 

 from November to the following May. Plants when once early 

 excited, appear to look for it the same season again ; people in pos- 

 session of a quantity of pots should not wait for many together, but 

 shift them progressively as they go out of flower. This communi- 



